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Illustrating Shiny Fabric
Examples of shiny fabric as depicted in art and illustration: from realism to stylised.
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Young Adult And Middle Grade Books With Trans Feminine Characters
Young adult readers can now find better queer diversity scattered across young adult literature. Many of these new stories feature trans masculine characters. Here are some young adult stories featuring trans feminine characters.
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Yours by Mary Robison Short Story Analysis
“Yours” is a 1982 short story by American writer Mary Robison.
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What is Realism in Literature?
There is a spectrum of how real-world a story feels. Realism is a widely misunderstood term even within literary studies today. The terms are used differently depending on location. They’re also heavily classed and slightly gendered to boot. Humanities scholars spend a lot of time arguing about the meaning of realism.
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Magical Times of Day
Before we had clocks, humans paid more attention to the sky and environment. Read older classics such as the novels of Thomas Hardy and notice how characters make use of all their senses once the sun goes down. They couldn’t simply flick on a light. Even though candles have long been available, they were expensive.…
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Extra by Yiyun Li Short Story Analysis
“Extra” is a short story by Chinese-American author Yiyun Li. Deborah Treisman and Sarah Shun-lien Bynum discuss this story in 2021 at the New Yorker Fiction podcast. This was the second story Yiyun Li published anywhere. “Extra” was included in Li’s 2005 debut collection A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers. Brilliant and original, A Thousand Years…
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When The Sky Is Like Lace by Horwitz and Cooney Analysis
When The Sky Is Like Lace (1975) is a picture book written by Elinor Lander Horwitz and illustrated by Barbara Cooney (1917-2000). If you read Wind in the Willows and wanted more otters, this one’s for you. (I’m not familiar with otters but I think these may be river otters rather than sea otters?)
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Of Mice and Men: Classroom Alternatives
Of Mice and Men is a 1937 novella by John Steinbeck. Two migrant ranch workers move from place to place in California looking for work during America’s Great Depression. This social protest novel is widely studied with high school English literature students. But, where funding allows, English teachers are starting to replace class sets Of…
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Films That Centre Characters Over 40
Are you weary of films about people younger than yourself? You may be over 40. Here are some suggestions.
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Red Blue and Yellow Dominant In Artwork
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What is a twice-told tale?
Dictionary Definition of twice-told Twice-told officially means well-known from repeated telling. The word is used chiefly in the phrase “twice-told tale“. First Known Use The word first took off around the year 1597, in the meaning above. Various Meanings In Contemporary Use Twice-Told Tales is a short story collection in two volumes by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The first volume came out in…
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Writing Thumbnail Character Sketches
We see people and things not as they are, but as we are. Anthony de Mello Park: “What did he look like?” Girl: “Well, kind of plain.” Park: “In what way?” Girl: “Just……..ordinary.” Memories of Murder, Bong Joon-Ho (2003) Readers differ in the amount of description they need when reading a fictional character. I remember…
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The Cosy Little World In Illustration
Artists have various ways of deliberately distorting naturalistic perspective to achieve a certain mood, for example, a cosy little world.
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Donnie Darko Film Study
Donnie Darko is a 2001 film set in 1988, in a fictional Virginia town called Middlesex. This genre blend of drama, mystery and science fiction is precisely ambiguous enough to generate much discussion about what is meant to have happened. This is ideal ‘cult-following’ material. Note that Donnie Darko didn’t make much of a splash when…
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Luggage and Suitcases In Art and Storytelling
Luggage, suitcases, boxes and other forms of containment are useful motifs for storytellers. Find a standout example in the lyrical short story “Prelude”, one of Katherine Mansfield’s finest.